A gulf between the two sides was created by the two
Australian fast bowlers, Lillee and Thomson. Their fearsome short-pitched
bowling cut through England’s
batting order at Brisbane and Perth,
and enabled Australia to
regain the Ashes by the time of the fourth Test match at Sydney. This was the match in which Denness
stood down, the first MCC tour captain in Australia to miss a Test because
he was out of form - previously, Chapman (1928-29 tour) and Hammond (1946-47)
had done so but were unfit.

As in 1973-74, the selection panel had turned down
Denness's wishto include John Snow in
the team. Geoff Boycott who had been left out of the Test matches during the
summer at his own request, never accepted the invitation to tour. Both
players, the stars of the 1970-71 side, were badly missed.

Alec
Bedser (chairman),Jack Bond,C.G.A.(Cecil) Paris,Mike Denness
(captain), Brian Taylor, Ossie Wheatley andGubby Allen who took a place on the selection
committee becauseDoug Insole was on
holiday.

Selection

The captain and manager were named on 23 August 1974.

Unavailable :

Tour party announced : 28 August 1974

Fred
Titmus was chosen for the first time since injury to his toes in the West Indies in 1968. The selectors said they debated
taking a batsman who could keep wicket instead of Taylor, and of omitting one of the fast
bowlers

Not selected:Phil Edmonds.

Withdrawn:Geoffrey
Boycott.It was announced on 24
September that he had withdrawn from the tour for personal reasons, and that Brian
Luckhurst would go instead. Luckhurst,
relaxing on holiday in Spain,
had to hurry back to England
when he heard the news that he would be touring in his place.

Time between selection and departure from England

54 days

(28 August - 21 October)

Travel

LondonQSydney

On 21
October the team flew from Heathrow Airport, via Frankfurt and Beirut
to Sydney Airport,
and thence to Adelaide
where they arrived on 23 October. The flight took 36 hours.They stayed in Adelaide until the first match. Denness was
confined to bed with a sore throat, later diagnosed as a virus.

41 year-old Colin Cowdrey
was chosen by the tour committee on 4 December because batsmen Dennis Amiss
(thumb) and John Edrich (hand) were unfit.

Barry Wood joined
the New Zealand
part of the tour when Lloyd (neck injury), Willis (knee) and Cowdrey returned
home. Wood joined the tour from West Indies
where he had been with an English counties side.

Owing to injury in New Zealand, manager Alan Smith
played once, and a West Australian colt, Peter
Brondson, turned out for MCC when Hendrick was in hospital with a throat
infection.

Denness missed early matches with a virus. Edrich cracked a rib

Fixtures/Results

a

† Port Lincoln

South
Australia Country

Drawn

b

Adelaide

South Australia

Drawn

c

† Warrnambool

Victoria
Country XI

Drawn

d

Melbourne

Victoria

Drawn

e

† Canberra

Capital Territory
Country XI

Drawn

f

Sydney

New
South Wales

Won 6 w

g

†Nambour

Queensland
Country XI

Abandoned

h

Brisbane

Queensland

Won 46 r

i

† Southport

South-East Queensland

Won 10 w

j

BRISBANE

AUSTRALIAFirst Test

LOST
166 r

k

Perth

Western
Australia

Lost 120 r

l

† Geraldton

West Australia
Country XI

Drawn

m

PERTH

AUSTRALIASecond Test

LOST 9
w

n

Adelaide

South
Australia

Drawn

o

MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIAThird Test

DRAWN

p

† Melbourne

Australia (ODI)

Won 3 w

q

SYDNEY

AUSTRALIAFourth Test

LOST
171 r

r

Hobart

Tasmania

Drawn

s

Launceston

Tasmania

Won inns 72

t

Sydney

New
South Wales

Won 187 r

u

ADELAIDE

AUSTRALIAFifth Test

LOST
163 r

v

† Newcastle

Northern New South
Wales

Won 4 w

w

† Melbourne

New
Zealand (ODI)

Lost 66 r

x

MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIASixth Test

WON
inns 4

y

Wellington

Wellington

Drawn

z

AUCKLAND

NEW ZEALANDFirst Test

WON
inns 83

a’

CHRISTCHURCH

NEW ZEALANDSecond Test

DRAWN

b’

† Wellington

New
Zealand XI

Drawn

c’

† Wellington

New
Zealand XI

Drawn

d’

† Hong Kong

Hong Kong
President's XI

Won 84 r

e’

† Hong Kong

Hong Kong XI

Won inns 102

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test: 37 days

(23 October - 29 November)

Test appearances on tour

(v Australia & NZ 74-75)

8-Greig, Knott.

7 -Amiss, Denness,
Fletcher, Underwood.

6 -Arnold, Edrich.

5 -Willis.

4 -Cowdrey, Lever,
Lloyd, Titmus.

3 -Hendrick, Old.

2 -Luckhurst, Wood.

1 -

0 -Taylor.

Match
appearances

TTest match

oone-day international

x other match

W wonL lostD drawn
Ttied

N no
resultA abandoned

Ccancelledu unknown result

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

a’

b’

c’

d’

e’

D LAmiss

G GArnold

M C Cowdrey

M HDenness

J HEdrich

K W Fletcher

A WGreig

MHendrick

A P EKnott

PLever

DLloyd

B Luckhurst

C MOld

R WTaylor

F JTitmus

D Underwood

R G DWillis

B Wood

R E S U L T S

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

•T

•

•

•

Tour
Summary

F

W

L

D

Aban

Test Matches

8

2

4

2

-

Other first-class matches

10

4

1

5

-

†Minor matches

13

5

1

6

1

All Matches

31

11

6

13

1

FFixturesWWonL LostD DrawnT TiedCanc CancelledAbanabandoned

Return
to England

AucklandQHong KongQLondon

After the Australian tour three players returned to London. Colin Cowdrey had not in any case been
engaged for New Zealand.
David Lloyd arrived on 11 February, Bob
Willis on 17 February.The rest of the tour party reached Wellington on 14
February.

Leaving New Zealand
from Auckland on 10 March, the MCC party
arrived at Kai Tak
Airport, Hong
Kong, that night. They left again for London on 14 March.Greig went to South Africa to join the
D.H.Robins tour.

"Swanton in Australia with M.C.C.", dealing with
eight post-War M.C.C. tours of Australia,
includes his remarks on the 1974-75 tour (Fontana, 1977)

Postscript

Tony Greig was exonerated after making criticisms of the team
selection and explaining his comments to the M.C.C.

Despite the M.C.C. team's relatively
advanced age, and its failure to cope with the Australian batting or bowling,
there was no purge. After the tour the selectors discarded only Lever, Lloyd,
Luckhurst, Cowdrey and Titmus. All the others represented England again. However, all the
selectors except Alec Bedser were replaced.

Other
Test tours in 1974-75

West Indiansto India and Pakistan 1974-75-captain Clive Lloyd

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive
(Gale Group);Jamaica Gleanor
archive;National Library of Australia
Trove; Papers Past NZ.